Director
Robert Carsen
Designs
Tobias Hoheisel
Lighting
Robert Carsen
Peter van Praet
Choreography
Philippe Giraudeau
Performers
Conductor
Ivor Bolton
Iphigénie
Susan Graham
Oreste
Simon Keenlyside
Pylade
Paul Groves
Thoas
Clive Bayley
First Priestess
Gail Pearson
Second Priestess
Claire Wild
Diana
Cécile van de Sant
Scythian
Jacques Imbrailo
Servant
Krzysztof
Szumanski
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Iphigenie en Tauride
by Christoph Gluck
Royal Opera House
Covent Garden
14 - 22 July 2007
A better name for this uncompromising version of Gluck's Iphigenie en Tauride might be Iphigenie In Torture. Robert Carsen's take on this Greek tragedy is dark and somber indeed. The protagonist, Iphigenie, is plagued by anger, guilt, confusion and nightmares; and all this torment within her psyche is given material expression in Tobias Hoheisel's design: in the looming concrete walls surrounding her, and the dark shadows they cast over the stage. Her band of fellow priestesses serve to heighten the sense of her unease, at times writhing around her bearing swords; at other times, bringing to life her visions of agony and death.
Iphigenie is a woman born out of betrayal, revenge and secrecy. Having once been chosen by her father Agamemnon to be sacrificed to the Goddess Diane, who in turn secretly saved her, Iphigenie now serves Diane as a priestess on the island of Tauris. Overcome by anger at the apparent death of her daughter, Clytemnestre murders her husband Agamemnon; Iphigenie's brother Oreste then kills his mother to avenge his father; the cycle of tragedy is profound.
By the time the curtain rises, Agamemnon and Clytemnestra are both dead and Oreste has gone into exile, fleeing the vengeance of the Furies for his terrible crime of matricide. He and his boon companion Pylade find themselves stranded on the shore of the Scythian stronghold of Tauris, where his sister Iphigénie has been coerced by the local monarch into going into the human sacrifice game - Thoas, King of Tauris, is conviced he will meet his death at the hands of a stranger and he has therefore decreed that Iphigenie sacrifice any stranger who appears.
This opera has not been staged at Covent Garden since 1973, and it's return in this gloomy manifestation has been met with mixed feelings. It is a demanding work; the voicing of the text makes deep calls on the passion and vigour of the cast. But the voices succeed: they are as glittering lights in the dark; and in spite of the heavy, relentlessly black setting, the singing conquers. American mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, as Iphigenie, well conveys the suffering of one ruined by melancholy and depair. She is a veteran of this production's previous incarnations and her authority is a given, especially in the exceptional lamenting aria that closes Act II.
Simon Keenlyside's performance as Oreste is strong and full of powerful foreboding, as is Paul Groves' interpretation of Pylade. They fill their scenes with emotion and subtly hint at the homoerotic relationship that Gluck's music invites us to guess.
Barbaric King Thoas, performed by Clive Bayley, is a raging, hateful and yet frightened villain - defied in the end when Iphigenie and her brother are reunited at the brink of his sacrifice.
Under Ivor Bolton's baton the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment is spirited and exact. They support a grand telling of this great tale, revealing in the music as in the drama itself deep psychological riches. Florence Mackenzie
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